When we were having the pool resurfaced and discovered the blocked bottom drain, we tried to sort out the purpose of the various taps in a christy box outside the studio building. One of the taps was not closed completely it seems, and the next day I walked into the downstairs room of the studio and found myself standing in an inch of water.
To understand how that happened, let’s start with the first image below. This is the south side of the staid and if you look closely, you will see a small rectangular box affixed to the wall near the left corner. That little box is a half-assed attempt by the previous owners to have an outdoor shower–they took a small shower unit you would find in an RV and shoved it into the wall. We never attempted to use the thing and it was infested with bugs and the spiders who like to eat them. Yet when the POs built the studio and installed this rinky-dink thing, they never connected it for use, or at some point they disconnected it and sealed it with just plumber putty. I kid you not.
Next is a shot inside the wall once we we excavated the box. My PM from Adams Pools rushed over to help me sort what was going on and helped me pry it out. That’s a pipe and remnants of plumber’s putty in the sodden insulation.
Lastly are shots of the floors. They are not normally shiny and these were taken after some of the carpet tiles had been removed.
After standing in water for 20 minutes and lifting up carpet tiles, I determined there was no way I alone would be able to address the wet mess, so I did some online searching and found a firm named Supra Clean, which came out that day and set about drying the building out. As it turns out, the flood from the silly pipe was only half the issue. When Mike from Supra Clean used his special camera to look at all the walls for signs of moisture, he discovered that, in addition to the flood in the southwest corner of the building, water had entered the building from the east wall. He suspected it was due to very high winds in the winter, as the flashing on the studio’s new roof has a slight gap between the layers.
So we set about moving just about everything out of the building. The bathroom we do not use became wine storage, the blue room became the place to put random items, and all the furniture was moved into the great room. Mike and his helper then set about drying the room using some very large industrial dehumidifiers and heaters.
As part of the process, we had another mob come in and test the walls for mold and asbestos–neither of which were present, thankfully. So after the space was dry a few days later, the crew returned and removed all of the baseboards and sections of drywall along the bottom of the eastern side of the building.
Once everything was dry, I made a call to our roofing company (Armstrong) and asked if they could assist with the flashing. They kindly sent a guy who secured the flashing at regular intervals with large bolts. We found out later that water may have come in from the top, though that wasn’t the main point of entry. We only discovered this when we set about renovating the space to repair the damage and make it something we liked and wanted to use–more about that soon.
